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y separately published work icon Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf single work   novel   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 1999... 1999 Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In a dying country town lives a young man fighting the future, a young man fighting the past, and a long-lost animal that can teach them both the art of survival. 'The animal swerved into the bracken, its smooth long tail slipping away. Satchel listened a minute for any sign of it but it was gone ... He wondered what its name had been, who had owned it, what hard history had left it alone here, at the foot of the hanging volcano.' (Source: Trove)

Exhibitions

12275835
10944614

Affiliation Notes

  • Thylacines and the Anthropocene

    Sonya Hartnett's Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf is bookended by two human-nonhuman encounters, between Satchel—a young man from a dying town—and an impossibly extant thylacine.

    The novel opens with the thylacine's sensory experiences waking up in its forest surrounds. Despite Hartnett's third-person voice and use of the neuter pronoun 'it', her description of the animal approaches something like a more-than-human subjectivity: 'the breath billowing out between its great wide jaws would take form and swirl, an echo like a memory of the animal itself'. This effect is sustained by focus shifting between the thylacine and Satchel throughout the novel, both experiencing the dampness and chill of the mountain air, and both getting on with the business of their days. Their two worlds—the human and the nonhuman animal—collide at the first chapter's close, when Satchel meets the thylacine and mistakes it for a dog. 

    The highway that bypasses Satchel's community acts as a symbol for human encroachment in the landscape, prioritising efficiency over the needs of others, whether human or nonhuman. Themes of dislocation and isolation hum along in the novel but in the wild, depersonalised space of the mountain, Satchel finds a kind of lonely comfort: 'no other element of the landscape ... would overshadow him and let him feel alone'. Through Satchel and his interest in the thylacine, and his companionship with his pet dog Moke, Hartnett destabilises dominant anthropocentric worldviews. When Satchel realises he could easily capture the thylacine's young pup in the final chapter, buying his ticket out of the dying town, he instead chooses ecological empathy: 'He had no right to take its gift of survival and use it for himself'. 

    As in other thylacine narratives, there is an 'associational resonance' between thylacine extinction and the colonial treatment of First Nations peoples in lutruwita / Tasmania. For more information, see Philip Mead's Extinction Island essay. 

    This work is affiliated with the Thylacines and the Anthropocene dataset, tracking thylacine extinction and ecological themes in Australian literature. 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Viking , 1999 .
      image of person or book cover 804852524278769702.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 191p.
      ISBN: 067088507X
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Walker Books [London] ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 6176042088908741764.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 201p.
      ISBN: 0744565944
    • Cambridge, Massachusetts,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Candlewick Press ,
      2005 .
      image of person or book cover 2557063746988899331.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 200p.
      ISBN: 0763626449
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 4392349192512980856.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 208p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 27 June 2016
      ISBN: 9780143574002
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Walker Books [London] ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 6869129182623161774.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781406375145, 1406375144, 9781406375152, 1406375152
Alternative title: Skuggan av den randiga vargen
Language: Swedish
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      BonnierCarlsen ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 3524701396894410397.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 205p.
      ISBN: 9789163844119 9163844117

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Why Are Australian Authors Obsessed with Killing off Kangaroos? Donna Mazza , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 4 March 2019;

'Kangaroos are the most visible of Australia’s unique animals, but despite their charm and national icon status, Australian writers perpetually kill them off.' (Introduction)

Ten Adolescent Fiction Books Every English Teacher Should Read Ernie Tucker , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 43 no. 3 2008; (p. 86-87)
Untitled Marita Thomson , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 15 no. 3 2001; (p. 50)

— Review of Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Untitled Jennifer Riggs , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 13 no. 2 1999; (p. 21)

— Review of Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Untitled Lyn Linning , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 14 no. 2 1999; (p. 36)

— Review of Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Untitled Lyn Linning , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 14 no. 2 1999; (p. 36)

— Review of Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Untitled Jennifer Riggs , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 13 no. 2 1999; (p. 21)

— Review of Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Untitled Marita Thomson , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 15 no. 3 2001; (p. 50)

— Review of Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Dissecting Dysfunction Stephen Matthews , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 1 May 1999; (p. 22)

— Review of Borrowed Light Anna Fienberg , 1999 single work novel ; Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Synchronicity Jenny Pausacker , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 209 1999; (p. 39-40)

— Review of Angels Passing By Judith Clarke , 1999 single work children's fiction ; Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf Sonya Hartnett , 1999 single work novel
Twists to a Tiger's Tale Anna Forward , 1999 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 43 no. 2 1999; (p. 9)
Ten Adolescent Fiction Books Every English Teacher Should Read Ernie Tucker , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 43 no. 3 2008; (p. 86-87)
Tasmanian Tales with Teeth Judy Adamson , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 May 1999; (p. 8)
Making Scents of the Striped Wolf... Christopher Thompson , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Spring vol. 7 no. 3 1999; (p. 30-31)
Why Are Australian Authors Obsessed with Killing off Kangaroos? Donna Mazza , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 4 March 2019;

'Kangaroos are the most visible of Australia’s unique animals, but despite their charm and national icon status, Australian writers perpetually kill them off.' (Introduction)

Last amended 23 May 2022 10:18:50
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